Can YA Love?

Hello friends.

For those that haven't heard, I, in conjunction with a wonderful team, am starting a non-profit called Can YA Love. We're starting Can YA Love (the YA stands for youth agriculture) because we believe that when a community comes together, we can meet the most basic of needs for people around the world, water and food. Can YA Love is dedicated to helping create the greenest and most sustainable communities in the world by educating people on how to create space and water efficient gardening systems to grow organic food to feed themselves and their community. In addition, we believe that growing one's own food is therapeutic as well and therefore are targeting historically disadvantaged groups such as at-risk youth, the disabled, and elderly.

Our vision is to have our unique gardening systems in impoverished urban communities all over the world, where space, access to healthy food, and nutrition are sorely lacking. We believe we have the right tools to face these issues and will share with you how we are combating them in future blog posts. Impoverished communities in the developing world (sometimes also known as slums) are the hardest hit by these issues with the added complexity of poor sanitation. That is why we are excited to tell you about our first international project, the KenYA Love Project.

KenYA Love will be in the largest and most densely populated slum in Africa, Kibera. Kibera is in Nairobi, Kenya and is 30 times more densely populated than New York City. Kibera is known for food shortages, poor sanitation that leads to diesease, and toxic land that shouldn't be, but is used for agriculture. Thousands die from these issues every year and many children in Kibera are orphans, fending for themselves at a very early age. This is the demographic we hope to help and are honored to be working with amazing partners in Kenya to get it done.

Why a blog? Well, to keep our friends, family, and supporters up to date with the latest developments at Can YA Love, as well as to discuss solutions to these dire problems. You'll hear from different members of Can YA Love including me, Benjamin Friton (Founder & chief of R&D), Justin Mabeya (director in Kenya), and Nick Hitchens as well. There are many people doing great work in this area and we hope to highlight those individuals and groups too. Although we are in the early stages of this project we have seen tremendous support thus far and have been inspired along the way. We hope to inspire you to help in our cause as we move forward.

To learn more about us or get involved please send an email to info@CanYALove.org